Former Formula One driver Cristiano Da Matta recently suffered a terrible crash in testing for the Champ Car World Series round at Elkhart Lake. At over 140 kph he struck a deer that had somehow gotten onto the track.

Da Matta (pictured in 2003 with former team mate Olivier Panis and the managing director of Toyota GB) received surgery for head trauma and is making slow but steady recovery from an extremely serious condition. Hopefully he will get well soon and can eventually make a return to racing.

His RuSport team will not be replacing him for the next round at Denver, but with a series of high-profile races coming up on the calendar the situation it is unlikely to remain that way.

A likely candidate to fill the space alongside ex-F1 racer Justin Wilson is another F1 refugee: Jacques Villeneuve. He won that championship in 1995 along with the Indy 500 ahead of his Grand Prix debut. If there really are no F1 options available for Villeneuve hopefully we will see him remain in high-level single seater racing.